Work brought me from Coos Bay, Oregon to Portland, Oregon the past twenty-four hours, meeting with staff at Portland Community College and the Oregon SBDC's Global Trade Center. It was a good, quick trip! Although I had to have a bit of a whine about leaving sunshine and upper 60s Fahrenheit for a temperature of 99 Fahrenheit by the time I rumbled into Portland. I also got to tease my colleagues via a slogan I've used since moving to Coos Bay that our local tourism group has since adopted: "We're cooler on the coast." :-) All y'all can have your shopping malls, orchestras and art galleries! We'll keep our beaches, forests, dunes and temps that rarely exceed 75 Fahrenheit.
/wp:paragraph wp:paragraph {"extended_widget_opts":{"id_base":-1,"column":{"desktop":"12","tablet":"12","mobile":"12"},"alignment":{"desktop":"default","tablet":"default","mobile":"default"},"roles":{"state":"","options":"hide"},"visibility":{"selected":"0","options":"hide","acf":{"visibility":"hide","field":"","condition":"","value":""}},"author_page":{"author_pages":{"selections":"1"}},"devices":{"options":"hide"},"days":{"options":"hide"},"dates":{"options":"hide","from":"","to":""},"styling":{"selected":"0","bg_image":"","background":"","background_hover":"","heading":"","text":"","links":"","links_hover":"","border_color":"","border_type":"","border_width":"","background_input":"","text_input":"","border_color_input":"","border_type_input":"","border_width_input":"","background_submit":"","background_submit_hover":"","text_submit":"","border_color_submit":"","border_type_submit":"","border_width_submit":"","list_border_color":"","table_border_color":""},"class":{"selected":"0","link":"","id":"","classes":"","animation":"","event":"enters","speed":"","offset":"","delay":"","logic":""},"tabselect":"0"}}After completing our whirlwind trip for work, I asked my traveling companion if I could PLEASE (pretty please?) visit five 8x11 tee signs that I had designed with DGA several years ago, at a tiny neighborhood course (Hubbard's Handful at Jan LaFollette Park in Hubbard, Oregon) that I hadn't yet played in Oregon. I told her it would take me ten minutes, tops, to play those five holes! She said: "Fine...ten minutes." Then she settled in with her book, expecting to see me 30-40 minutes later. So when I was back at the car 10-12 minutes later? She had barely made it a couple of pages into her book, almost wanting to ask me to play another round (so she could get a few more pages read).
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Hubbard's Handful was truly a handful! It's a short course, and based upon the hole distances alone? It is a course that one with reasonable skills should shoot no worse than a -3 (12). But Holes 1 and 4, in particular, come with ample opportunities to lose discs. Either that, or waste 15-20 minutes looking in rough taller than you are, losing a pint of blood in Himalayan blackberry plants (an invasive species in Oregon) or taking your chances hopping a neighbor's fence chasing an errant tee shot. Because of that? I played the course incredibly conservatively. Playing for bogey-4 on Hole 1, and par-3s on Holes 3 and 4. I missed my deuce putt on Hole 2 (darnit), then got my deuce on Hole 5. So I shot an underwhelming even par (15) on the course. But I kept my promise about a ten-minute round. AND I came back to the car with all my discs still in my backpack.
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The photo of the Hole 4 tee is a good example of just how easy the course would be to lose a disc (and/or create problems with a neighboring private property owner). MANY right-handed players would likely start their tee shots out over that fence. And if they miss their release angle even a little bit? The disc will land on private property, difficult/impossible to retrieve. And for us lefties who primarily throw back-handed? That is a TOUGH, fussy shot. I kept the height of my tee shot below the top of that fence, and curled an anhyzer safely down that bit of a hill. But Holy Hard, Batman! If I were in charge of that course design and course maintenance? I would trim that growth between bushes/trees and fence, back at LEAST 3-4 feet more to the left. Give less-skilled lefties and right-hand forehand players a chance...while making it less tempting for right-hand backhand players to start their tee shots out over the fence.
/wp:paragraph wp:paragraph {"extended_widget_opts":{"id_base":-1,"column":{"desktop":"12","tablet":"12","mobile":"12"},"alignment":{"desktop":"default","tablet":"default","mobile":"default"},"roles":{"state":"","options":"hide"},"visibility":{"selected":"0","options":"hide","acf":{"visibility":"hide","field":"","condition":"","value":""}},"author_page":{"author_pages":{"selections":"1"}},"devices":{"options":"hide"},"days":{"options":"hide"},"dates":{"options":"hide","from":"","to":""},"styling":{"selected":"0","bg_image":"","background":"","background_hover":"","heading":"","text":"","links":"","links_hover":"","border_color":"","border_type":"","border_width":"","background_input":"","text_input":"","border_color_input":"","border_type_input":"","border_width_input":"","background_submit":"","background_submit_hover":"","text_submit":"","border_color_submit":"","border_type_submit":"","border_width_submit":"","list_border_color":"","table_border_color":""},"class":{"selected":"0","link":"","id":"","classes":"","animation":"","event":"enters","speed":"","offset":"","delay":"","logic":""},"tabselect":"0"}}I must say too that I was very happy to see how good those tee signs still look, several years after we created them. It's always fun seeing the tee sign designs I create out "in the wild." Sometimes people tag them with graffiti. Other times, they get hit by lawnmowers or ??? But most of the time? They look great for many years. Which feels good, every time I see them out there, helping players have one less thing to worry about (a lack of information) when enjoying their rounds.
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/wp:paragraph wp:heading {"level":3,"extended_widget_opts":{"id_base":-1,"column":{"desktop":"12","tablet":"12","mobile":"12"},"alignment":{"desktop":"default","tablet":"default","mobile":"default"},"roles":{"state":"","options":"hide"},"visibility":{"selected":"0","options":"hide","acf":{"visibility":"hide","field":"","condition":"","value":""}},"author_page":{"author_pages":{"selections":"1"}},"devices":{"options":"hide"},"days":{"options":"hide"},"dates":{"options":"hide","from":"","to":""},"styling":{"selected":"0","bg_image":"","background":"","background_hover":"","heading":"","text":"","links":"","links_hover":"","border_color":"","border_type":"","border_width":"","background_input":"","text_input":"","border_color_input":"","border_type_input":"","border_width_input":"","background_submit":"","background_submit_hover":"","text_submit":"","border_color_submit":"","border_type_submit":"","border_width_submit":"","list_border_color":"","table_border_color":""},"class":{"selected":"0","link":"","id":"","classes":"","animation":"","event":"enters","speed":"","offset":"","delay":"","logic":""},"tabselect":"0"}}ABOUT DEREK
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Derek Tonn is a member of the DGA’s Ambassador Team. His company, Mapformation, LLC, has been DGA’s partner in the development of disc golf tee signage since 2012. The longer our two companies have worked together, and the more Derek has gotten to know all the great folks at DGA, the more he has wanted to formally sing the company’s praises. The more he has realized that “Steady” Ed’s (the father of disc golf and the modern-day Frisbee) vision for the sport and his company perfectly describes his own interests and priorities related to disc golf, and the more Derek has recently been encouraged to share his story.
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